Selling

John was sitting in his office. Michael was already back from his trip to Portsmouth. They had finally let go of Asmir Begovic for a fee of 500,000 pounds but had inserted a buy back clause of 2.5 million pounds if they bought him back in the next two years.

Michael had told John about it before completing the deal. John had finally given the confirmation to Michael to go ahead with the transfer after thinking for a long time.

John was at first concerned about the buy back clause but then he thought it was okay. Leicester were lacking money now, so if they can have a talented goalkeeper for 500,000 pounds right now, then even if they buy him back in a year or two, it wouldn't hurt Leicester. They will also be leaving Leicester a profit of 2 milllion pounds should they decide to buy Begovic back. And most importantly, John was sure that by then Leicester would be in a better financial condition and in a better position in sporting terms to lure better players to Leicester.

As John was mulling over the implications of the buy back clause, Sean entered John's office. John looked at Sean, who looked downright exhausted.

"You aren't paying me enough for this job." Sean said in an aggrieved voice as he sat down on the chair.

"I'm paying you more than I am earning as the President of the club. What more could I do?" John said as he pretended to be hurt in an over exaggerated manner.

"Though seriously, what happened? You look like you were fighting a battle in the last few days." John said to Sean in a lighthearted manner.

"I've been searching for sponsorships for Leicester. There are a few offers, mainly from local companies, but nothing concrete yet. There's also the matter of kit suppliers, I'm not here for that though, I'm here regarding the Matty Fryatt transfer", Sean said to John.

"Did something go wrong?" John asked Sean with a little concern. Getting that transfer money was instrumental in some of their carefully laid transfer plans.

"No, but Wolves aren't budging from their initial bid of 2 million pounds. They are willing to add a sell-on clause of 10% though. I'm sure we can get more if we drag the transfer, but as you said we need money right now to fund other transfer deals. So I'm here to confirm, should I go ahead with the current deal or should I negotiate further and see if they are willing to increase their offer?" Sean asked John to get the confirmation.

John's brain started working. The sell-on clause was okay but it was unlikely to help Leicester too much. And he knew they would be willing to fork out more money if they waited long enough, but they won't be increasing their offer by too much, at most a hundred or two hundred thousand pounds. On the other hand, Leicester needed the cash. John knew that any amount of money right now would be a big help to complete the transfers and bring in the players that Leicester were targetting. So, it was a dilemma.

John didn't spend a long time to come to a decision though.

"Go ahead with the deal. Even if we wait, it's unlikely they will increase their offer by too much. Getting the cash right now is important." John said to Sean as he made his decision.

"Alright, I will do that." Sean said before leaving John's office. There was no time for idle chit-chat as eveyone was swamped with work.

John also looked at the clock hanging on the wall of his office, it was 3 p.m. It was time for him to leave for airport. John called Michael to his office.

Michael was also going on this trip with John on his own request. This was going to be his job in the future, so he wanted to go with John. Michael wished to obtain some experience on this trip. He also knew Spanish and German so that was going to help too.

John and Michael left Leicester for the first stop on their business trip: Zagreb, the capital city and the cultural, political, economic and sporting center of Republic of Croatia.